Train2Game News visited Overclockers UK stand at The Gadget Show Live in the Birmingham NEC. While there, we spoke to Overclockers UK’s Mark Purdy, who told us a bit about what the company do, how to build your own PC and much more.  As usual, leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum. 

First of all, tell us a bit about Overclockers UK?

We are a high end gaming components and computer seller, an online retailer based in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. Visit us at www.overclockers.co.uk. At The Gadget Show we’re showcasing a range of gaming systems that you can come and try, we’ve got one that’s running Batman: Arkham City, one that’s running the Diablo 3 beta, and two that are running Battlefield 3. We also have a racing simulator with our own branded racing seat running Project Cars, and we have a flight simulator running Microsoft Flight. We have our show system, Ultimate Mammoth, which is a £6000 machine featuring brand new NVIDIA GTX 680 graphics cards.

We have stock for sale, which you can come and purchase. We also have a free shipping code on flyers that you can come along and grab. We are running daily competitions, doing build demos so you can learn to build your own computer, and also have our time on the main stage where we’re giving out bags full of goodies.

Building a computer is something many people will look at and think of as a tough task, but is it actually relatively simple to do?

I’m going to compare it to building Lego; putting in each component in the right place is just like slotting in pieces of Lego, as long as you know where it goes and can connect it up properly, and test it.  That’s what we’re going to be showing.

So, if someone wanted to build a high-end PC, what would you recommend they start with? What are the key parts they’ll need?

Look at the games you’re going to be playing, and make sure you build a system that’ll run the games nicely. There’s no point spending too much money on a system you’ll never use all of the full potential of the power.  Always get a system which you’re comfortable with, which will run the games nice and smoothly and won’t cost you too much. There are so many people who’ll go out and buy a few thousand pound machine and never actually use the full potential of it. You could spend £700 to £800 on a machine that’ll do your games running at high definition, while you play it nice and smoothly.

Where can people get more information about this, or Overclockers?

We have a Facebook page which people can go on to, which we update every day. We have a Twitter account where people can ask questions on. We have one of the UK’s largest forums as well, with over 100,000 members, where people can ask questions about hardware. If they’re not sure what to buy they can just go on and talk to our members and get information; if they have a budget and they’re not sure what to spend it on they’ll get recommendations.  And it’s just for general chit-chat, so we have a general discussion area where anything can go, a PC games section where people talk about the latest releases, and latest news and deals where we o do special deals just for the forum.

The forums are a key part of a good community then?

Yes, a very key part of the community. The business is built almost around the forums, the forums really helped the business take off back in 1999. So it was one of the best additions it could’ve had for marketing, especially for new products, it’s absolutely fantastic.

Thanks for your time.

Visit OverClockers UK  http://www.overclockers.co.uk/. As usual, leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.